Improved fuse-stock for bomb-shells



UNITED STATES FATENT @Erica `A. P'OVELL, JR., MARE ISLAND, CALIFORNIA.

IMP'ROVED FUSE-STOCK -FOR BONlB-'SHELL Specitlcatioufoning part ofLetters Patent 'o. BEJS, dated June 26,1855.

To all wwml it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ABRAHAM POWELL, Jr., of Mare Island, Solano county,State of California, have invented a new and improved mode of burstingshell-shot at any required time from two to iifteen seconds, or any mod.crate number' of seconds; and I d o hereby declare that the following isa full and exact description. L

The nature of my invention consists in making a stock of two cylinders,one within the other, the outer cylinder being screwed fast in the shelland the inner made to turn at pleasure to anyrequired point of agraduated scale on the ends of both. This scale is marked with thenumber of seconds-2, 5, 10, 15, &c.-to the greatest extent of time,according to the driving of the fuse, that it may be required for thebursting of the shell; and when the inner cylinder is set with', say Sopposite 2 on the outer cylinder, then that in icates that the shellwhen fused will burst in two seconds, and so on to any other number. Toeffect this there are apertures down the sides of both cylinders,

' so arranged that when any particular hole of inner cylinder isopposite-to the corresponding hole'of outer cylinder all the others areshut and safe from fusion, and when the fuse has burned down to thatparticular aperture y indicated by the scale on top or outer end thenwill the explosion take place. Vhen it is required that all theapertures should be shut, the letters S on each cylinder are placedopposite to Aone another, rendering it a safetyfuse, all the aperturesbeing shut, so that no rire can escape tothe shell, though the fuseshould burn to the bottom of the stock.

To enable others. skilled in the art to make and use my invention, Iwill proceed to describe its construction and operation.

' I take the usual shell, with lling-hole A, (as shown in theaccompanying drawing, full size,) and cavity B, in which I insert astock, C C, composed of two cylinders. The outer' one is fast screwed inthe shell and enters a l ground socket, D, onthe opposite side of shell,

about one-fourth of an inch deep. t The inner cylinder is made torevolve in the outer one and turned around to any required point by-Ineans of a strong two-pronged keyinserted. in the holes E E. On the topor end view of both cylinders are the letters S S--one letter on theinside cylinder and one on the outside-and when these letters areopposite one to the other then are all the apertures (shown in section)of stock closed, when the fuse may burn to the bottom of stock withperfeet safety from explosion; but when the inner cylinder 'is turnedround until letter Slis opposite to Fig. 2 on outerv cylinder, then theupper aperture of inner and outer cylinders are also opposite to eachotl1er,and the explo-- sion will take place. in two:l seconds. In likemanner, when S is placed opposite to 5, the explosion will take place iniive seconds, and so on .for any number of seconds for which the stockis made. The inner cylinder is made fast to outer one by means of twoears, F F, which enter at G G, and when turned round in the cincture orgroove H H lmakes -it perfectly hrm. The apertures I I I I are of courseso arranged as that two of them will not be opposite their correspondingholes 'at thesame adjustment. The number of lapertures may be increased,or decreased at pleasure.

The composition of fuse can be drivenA so densethat it will burn for anymoderate period of time before getting to the end of the stock.

I use a similar water-cup, K, t`o that usedviii.

Algeirs fuse-stock. W'hat I claim as my invention, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is A doublecylinder fuse-stock so graduatedl as toburst shell-shot at any required number of seconds, as herein described.

ABRAHAM POW'ELL, JR. Witnesses: l

J oHN L. DUNN, RoB'r. A. Love.

